Paul v. South Georgia Title Pawn (In re Paul)

534 B.R. 430, 2015 WL 709260
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedFebruary 17, 2015
DocketCase No. 14-11752-AEC
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 534 B.R. 430 (Paul v. South Georgia Title Pawn (In re Paul)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paul v. South Georgia Title Pawn (In re Paul), 534 B.R. 430, 2015 WL 709260 (Ga. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Austin E. Carter, United States Bankruptcy Judge

This contested matter comes before the Court on the Debtor’s Emergency Motion for Turnover of Property, filed on January 20, 2015. In this Motion, the Debtor seeks the turnover of a 2001 Mitsubishi Montero (the “Vehicle”), which was repossessed from her by the Respondent prior to the filing of this ease. The Court heard this matter on an expedited basis on February 3, 2015.

Proceedings regarding the turnover of property of the estate are core proceedings under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b). The Court states its findings of fact and conclusions of law separately pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52, made applicable in this case by Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7052, which is, in turn, made applicable to this contested matter through Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9014(c).

FINDINGS OF FACT

The parties have stipulated to the following facts, which the Court adopts as its findings:

• Prior to the filing of this case, the Debtor entered into a pawn transaction with Respondent South Georgia Title Pawn (“South Georgia”), where-under she pawned the title to her Vehicle in exchange for an advance of . funds.
• This transaction should be considered a “true” pawn transaction under Georgia law.
• That, pursuant to the pawn transaction, the Debtor had no obligation to repay the money advanced, redeem the Vehicle, or repurchase the Vehicle at a stipulated price.
• The Debtor’s pawn transaction with South Georgia matured on November 26, 2014.
• Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 44-14-403(b)(1), the Debtor had thirty days from such maturity date to redeem the vehicle by paying off in full the remaining balance of any principal, interest, and pawnshop charges outstanding with South Georgia, this period ending Friday, December 26, 2014.
• South Georgia repossessed the vehicle on December 4, 2014.
• On December 10, 2014, the Debtor filed this bankruptcy case.
• The sixty day extension from the date of filing bankruptcy provided by [432]*432§ 108(b) of the Bankruptcy Code1 calculates to Sunday, February 8, 2015; thus, the maturity period as extended under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9006(a)(1)(c) ends Monday, February 9, 2015.
• The Debtor filed her Motion seeking an order compelling South Georgia to surrender the Vehicle to her on January 20, 2015.
• The Debtor concedes that she does not have the ability to redeem the Vehicle by paying the full amount of her obligation to South Georgia. (Instead, the Debtor proposes in her Chapter 13 plan (which has not yet come on.for a confirmation hearing) to treat South Georgia as the holder of a secured claim in the amount of the balance owed under the pawn transaction.)

Conclusions op Law

Under the Georgia Code, when a person pawns her vehicle, the loan she receives becomes due in full in thirty days from the date of the transaction unless the transaction is mutually extended for another thirty-day period. O.C.G.A. § 44-14-403(b). Upon such maturity, the borrower may “redeem” her vehicle by paying the full amount of principal, interest, and pawnshop charges owing under the pawn loan transaction. Id. § 44-14-403(b)(3). This thirty-day period may be referred to as the “redemption period.”

Section 108(b) operates to extend any period to “cure a default, or perform any other similar act” under applicable nonbankruptcy law to up to sixty days from the date of the order of relief (which in a voluntary case is entered upon the filing of the petition in bankruptcy under § 301(b)). See 11 U.S.C. § 108(b). Thus, filing a bankruptcy petition during the thirty-day redemption period provided under Georgia law causes an extension of that redemption period, such extension ending sixty days from the petition date. In re Moore, 448 B.R. 93, 102 (Bankr. N.D.Ga.2011) (collecting cases).

The analysis of a motion for turnover of property usually begins with the question of whether the property interest in question is property of the estate. See 5 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 542.02[2] (Alan N. Resnick & Henry J. Sommer eds., 16th ed.). However, the parties agreed that the Court’s decision on the motion should not turn on the extent to which the Vehicle is currently property of the estate, but instead whether the Vehicle will continue to be property of the estate and remain in possession of the Debtor over the course of the plan (such as would be the case if the Vehicle were the subject of a typical secured transaction outside of the pawn context). The Debtor contends that § 1322 allows her to redeem the Vehicle from South Georgia by treating South Georgia as the holder of a secured claim under her plan. South Georgia, on the other hand, argues that once the Debtor’s right to redeem the Vehicle under the thirty-day redemption period provided for by Georgia law, as extended under § 108(b), expires, neither the Debtor nor her estate has any further .rights to the Vehicle, and, therefore, South Georgia cannot be treated as holding a secured claim under the Debtor’s plan. In support of its argument, South Georgia cites In re Oglesby, No. 01-4072, 20Ó1 WL 34047880 (Bankr.S.D.Ga. Oct. 23, 2001).

Although the Debtor’s counsel did not cite to any specific subsection of § 1322 in [433]*433support of his argument that § 1322 allows the Debtor to redeem the Vehicle over the life of the plan, he did argue that § 1322 allows a debtor to cure defaults through a plan. This subsection, of course, is § 1322(b)(3). The Court’s review of § 1322 and applicable case law reveals an additional subsection that arguably supports the Debtor’s position, namely, § 1322(b)(2), which allows a debtor to modify the rights of the holder of a secured claim through her plan. However, the Court is not convinced that either of these subsections demands the adoption of the Debtor’s argument.

The Court first turns to the holding in Oglesby. In Oglesby, the debtors filed their bankruptcy petition shortly after their vehicle was repossessed by a pawn lender, but before the expiration of the thirty-day redemption period of O.C.G.A. § 44-14^403(b)(l). The debtors then sought turnover of their vehicle prior to the expiration of the statutory redemption period, arguing that they could repay the pawn loan under their plan in accordance with § 1322.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
534 B.R. 430, 2015 WL 709260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paul-v-south-georgia-title-pawn-in-re-paul-gamb-2015.